The Problem With Field Trips
by The Hope Lions
Summary: Percy just knows things are going to go wrong when his eighth grade class takes a field trip to a dude ranch. They always do. OR How Percy got expelled from MS-54.


Percy Jackson is probably the fandom I've been writing the longest, but this is the first one that isn't a very cliche self-insert, so I figured I would share it. I'll probably be writing a lot of one-shots over the next few days because the Lightning Thief Musical kind of broke me. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this very random fic. It's certainly interesting.

Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. I do own my obsession, because it's good to be honest with yourself.

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The Problem With Field Trips

Look, I'm sick of saying it, and I'm sure you're sick of hearing it, but it wasn't my fault I got expelled. It just sort of… happened. I suppose that every demigod is only allotted a certain amount of luck, and since I used all my luck during the life-or-death situations I constantly found myself in, I didn't have any left over for my more mundane problems. At least that's what I told myself, and my mom. Fair or not, reminding my mom that I at least hadn't gotten killed was a surefire way to keep her from being too mad at me.

I had a bad feeling about it from the beginning, mostly because it was a field trip, and things always seemed to go wrong on my field trips. Honestly, I wasn't even sure why. I mean Hades was definitely responsible for the time my teacher turned out to be a fury, so that was a demigod thing, but then there was the time with the school bus in fifth grade. Try as I might, I just couldn't figure out how monsters were responsible for that. Maybe they thought I would be easier to eat if I couldn't escape on my school bus?

Sorry, I'm getting distracted. The point is, things always seem to go wrong for me when I go on a field trip, so I was nervous from the start. I would have stayed home from school if my mom hadn't insisted that it would be good for me and given me those puppy dog eyes. Honestly, it's not fair that my mother is the most wonderful woman in the world. Most kids manipulate their parents but me, me I'm the one who gets played. Oh, she might say that it's my choice and to 'do what you have to', but I know her. I know it kills her inside every time I miss out on the opportunity to do something normal because of who my dad is.

So there I was, duffel bag slung over my shoulder, getting off the bus on some dude ranch upstate with two-dozen other members of my eight-grade class. At least my eight-grade retreat was just to a ranch. Some of the other kids had to go hiking in the Berkshires, or down to the Jersey Shore. Horses might be within my dad's domain, but they seemed less likely to cause me trouble than a weekend by the sea, or, Zeus forbid, hiking. After my little adventure over Christmas, I never wanted to climb a mountain again.

"Listen up!" our chaperone, Mr. Harrington, called. All the kids ignored him, continuing to chat with their friends, so he shouted a little louder, "Listen up!" Still nothing. With a smirk, I was reminded of the Stoll brothers attempting to wrangle all the Hermes kids. Mr. Harrington, however, had one more trick up his sleeve, or well, down his shirt. He pulled out a bright orange whistle and blew.

The shriek was so terrible I had to cover my ears, and even then it still felt like my brain was turning to mush. It shut everyone up though. A second later, they had silence, and Mr. Harrington spoke, ignoring the twenty-five death-glares of his charges. "Thank you. Now, welcome to KJ's Ranch. Over the next three days, I hope you will all enjoy the serenity that the great outdoors has to offer and reflect fully and completely upon your middle school years and what still lies ahead. Now, when I call your names come forward and I'll give you an envelope. Inside is everything you need for the weekend: your schedule, instructions, etcetera, etcetera. And no, if you lose it there are no replacements, so keep better track of it than you do your homework, alright?"

No one laughed besides Mr. Harrington, and so the teacher shuffled awkwardly for a moment. Then he turned around, grabbed the stack of envelopes, and called out the first name, "Jocelyn Aaron."

Jocelyn sashayed up, showing off the pretty little boots she'd bought just for this occasion. Unlike the vast majority of schools I'd been to, MS54 was a public school, so the kids weren't as snotty-rich as I was used to. Still, all I'd learned from being in public school was that when everyone wasn't rich, those kids who were… well they were infinitely worse. Jocelyn in particular made me grit my teeth. She wasn't a bully per-say. I'd faced a lot of bullies over the years, and Jocelyn wasn't like that. In a way though, that made her worse. She brought people down not by pointing out what they didn't have, but just by pointing out what she did._ I know it's a weekend at a dude ranch, but I've been riding since I was little and isn't it just dreadful that we can't go to a proper hunter-jumper barn because some kids couldn't afford it? _Honestly, it drove me nuts, especially because it only made monsters out of all her friends. Every one of them lied through their teeth trying to compete with the reality that was Jocelyn's life. And then there was nothing they loved more than proving that someone was lying to get attention.

I mostly avoided them, but Jocelyn and her friends were a good quarter of the people on this retreat, so they would be unavoidable. Especially, I realized when Mr. Harrington gave me my folder, because I was sharing a cabin with Jacob, Jocelyn's boyfriend, and his best friends Jeremy and Juan.

I tried to hold back my groan, but failed miserably as we split off to our cabins to put our things away. I let Jacob, Jeremy, and Juan go ahead, following just far enough behind that it didn't look strange, but out of their view. So far as I knew, none of them had anything against me. I'd done a remarkable job keeping a low profile at MS54, for once, and didn't really have any enemies. Still, I hadn't had to spend three days with anyone before, so I still had time.

The cabins were a lot smaller than those at Camp Half Blood, but besides that, they were a lot more similar than I'd expected. As I walked into the cabin where I'd be spending the weekend, I was overwhelmed by a woody, homey scent. It wasn't like Cabin 3, there was no hint of the sea. No, it reminded me of the Hermes cabin, and the short time I'd spent there before I'd known just how weird I was even for a half-blood.

"Hey, Percy, do you mind if I take the top bunk?" Jacob called, startling me. It had never occurred to me that he even knew my name, never mind that he would be nice enough to ask if I cared where I slept. I didn't, for the record. I was used to having a cabin to myself, it was true, but this cabin reminded me of number 11, after all, and there I'd slept on the floor. Bottom bunk was fine.

"Not a problem," I told Jacob, dropping my bag on the bed. That was a bad idea, because the bag was muddy from being in the bottom of the bus, and the mud now smeared all over the mattress. I sighed, pulling out my towel and rubbing the mud off. Then I realized I had just dirtied my one towel. Nice going Percy.

I put it out of my mind, and instead pulled the itinerary out of its folder, scanning to see what we were supposed to do now. From the looks of it, nothing. We had 'free time' until dinner in an hour, but since we weren't supposed to go out to the horses until we were given our 'orientation' in the morning, that meant my only options were take a shower, or chill in the cabin with a bunch of guys I hardly knew. I weighed my options carefully for a moment, but then I remembered my dirty towel, and didn't feel like dealing with that.

Hanging with the guys it was.

It was awkward for a few minutes. I set about making my bed (unrolling a sleeping bag and laying down a pillow), while the other guys chatted around me. But then another surprise, Jacob spoke to me again, "What do you think, Percy?"

"What?" I dumbly answered. That elicited a snigger from Jeremy, but not a particularly malicious one (which threw me even more).

Jacob patiently smiled, and repeated, "I asked you if you think riding is as difficult as Jocelyn says."

Oh. It was such a normal question, I almost didn't know how to respond. Most of the time if people at school spoke to me it was to laugh, but this… this was just friendly conversation. It was weird, like really weird. But good, I supposed. It had never occurred to me before, but I was getting older. People might actually be growing out of the whole 'make fun of the dyslexic kid who's gotten kicked out of how many schools now?' phase. Just maybe though. I didn't trust it completely, even if Jacob had a friendly look about him.

So I answered the question, if a bit hesitantly, with honesty, "It's not that hard. I mean, it's physical, and if you want to do it right I guess it can be pretty difficult, but they're not going to put you on anything that wants to throw you off. And we won't do much I'm sure. The school won't want the liability."

I wondered what I'd said immediately, because all three boys just stared at me. When I replayed my words in my mind, however, I was certain I hadn't said anything relating to Greek gods or killer Titans. No, for me that was actually a pretty normal thing to say, except they clearly didn't think so.

"Dude. I think that's the most I've ever heard you say," Jeremy snickered, smacking Juan on the next to him. (Seriously, why did all three of them have names starting with 'j'? It was so confusing!)

I didn't quite know what to say in response, though, which, considering, didn't seem like a good thing. Therefore I forced myself to say something, though all that came out was, "Really? People are usually telling me I never shut up."

"Na-huh," Jeremey shook his head, dark locks of hair flopping across his face. "I mean, I've heard you say some funny shit to our teachers, so I'm sure they wish you never spoke, but they're always just short. Like jabs from a dagger, over and done with."

Okay, now I was starting to wonder if this was an up-and-coming method of bullying, confuse your victim to death, and then laugh. But no, I could tell he was dead serious, and when I thought about it… he wasn't wrong. Nothing seemed to limit the number of smart-mouth off-handed comments I made (the sea doesn't like to be restrained), but considering I knew I'd only be at MS54 for a year even if I wasn't expelled, I hadn't put much attention into attempting to make friends. Normally I just found the biggest loser in the school and befriended them, but this year I hadn't found anyone like that, so I'd just stuck to myself and occasionally run off with my camp friends to save the world. Now it was May, and Jeremy was right; I had barely spoken to anyone all school year. Weird.

But I certainly didn't know what to say now that I'd had this realization, so I sort of stared dumbly at the other guys until Jacob interrupted, breaking the tension, "So you've ridden before then Percy?"

I almost mentioned that I had a horse named Blackjack, but then I realized that was exactly the kind of exaggerated lie that Jocelyn's friends would tell to try and seem cool. So I settled on something simpler, "Yeah. I've ridden them at this summer camp I go to."

That was a normal enough thing that none of them questioned it. Instead, Juan piped up, "Yeah, I did once too. Man it was scary though. You're braver than you look Percy."

I couldn't help it; I smirked. If only he knew.

Jacob dug something out of his bag, then announced, "You guys want to go find the girls and play some BS?"

I figured he wasn't talking to me, so said nothing. I was surprised, therefore, when the three of them headed to the door and Jacob called over his shoulder, "Percy, you coming?"

And that was how I ended up playing cards with Jocelyn Aaron and her friends. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't a bad time. It was a little awkward, because I discovered quickly that as the 'strong, silent type' I'd attracted the affection of a number of the girls in my grade, but they were friendly enough now that I spoke to them. A little annoying for sure, but not all that bad.

I was pretty content that night, almost wondering if I could possibly get through this weekend unscathed, which, of course, doomed me for the next day.

They got us up way too early the next morning, but a part of me was excited. I was fairly certain that whatever the day held, I would be good at it. After all, I'd cleaned the pegasus stables before at camp, and since I could talk to horses, I was a natural rider. Besides, I was getting along pretty well with the guys in my cabin, and no one was giving me a hard time. Save for a monster attack, I would probably get through the day without any trouble at all, and if Gabe's smell could protect me for years well… the muck pile probably could protect me for a day.

Everyone was dazed and quiet at breakfast, but when someone looked at their schedule and realized we had to clean all the horses' stalls, people got loud real quick. I wondered momentarily what they'd been expecting, but made no comment. Surprisingly, it was Jocelyn who spoke up, "Come on guys, it's only fair that we take care of the horses that are going to take care of us. We cannot expect everyone to have a groom to do it for you."

A few of Jocelyn's friends looked ready to revolt, but disagreeing with Jocelyn was anathema (ha, Annabeth's Greek lessons did some good after all), and they kept their grumblings to themselves. After a hearty breakfast, we stalked out to the stables, prepared to get down and dirty.

The moment I approached the stables, the horses got excited. They began to trot back and forth in their paddocks, tossing their heads and whinnying. I could hear them loud and clear in my mind, _Son of the Sea God! Little Lord! Son of the Sea God! _Momentarily, I wondered how it was horses instinctively knew about the gods when people didn't, but then I let the thought go.

"Alright, everyone. Grab a pitchfork and get to work," Mr. Harrington told us, pointing to the rack on the walls. I stared in horror for a moment, predicting what would happen next, but Mr. Harrington gave no further instructions. Grimacing as I prepared for the inevitable, I grabbed a pitchfork, wheelbarrow, and set to work in the stall farthest from everyone else.

Within a few minutes, the barn had dissolved into chaos, as one would expect from a bunch of eight graders who have no idea what they were doing. I have no idea who started it, but shit hit the fan, quite literally, when someone 'missed' the wheelbarrow and threw a pitchfork's worth of dirty shavings at Mr. Harrington.

An hour later, the barn was covered in dirty shavings and poop, the only stalls which were clean were the three at the end that I'd done. Mr. Harrington didn't have time to be impressed, mostly because he was furious and covered in horse poop. He just shouted, "That's it. Every single one of you is on probation. If you set another toe out of line, you'll be expelled! Go shower and be back here in half an hour!"

Everyone was in a pretty cheerful mood. There is something uniquely satisfying about being covered in horse poop if you know all your friends are covered in horse poop as well. Me, I was just surprised to discover how peaceful mucking a stall could be. At camp it was just another chore made all the more difficult by my being the only person in my cabin, but it wasn't bad here. I did wonder, however, about who 'KJ' was that owned the ranch, and what on earth they were going to do about the mess in their barn. But for once I wasn't the cause of trouble, so I just let it be and went back to my cabin. Once there I found Jacob and the others laughing hysterically as they tried to shake all the shavings out of their shoes. Juan looked like he'd suffered the worse from the battle; patches of hay stuck out of his hair in every direction. Still, there was nothing more gratifying than the look on their faces when they realized I had avoided the mess completely.

"What can I say? I just have a way with horses," I quipped, smiling to myself. It didn't even matter that they could never know what I meant. I knew, and it was amusing to me.

Since I didn't need to shower and my towel was dirty from the night before, I took the time to write a letter to Annabeth, telling her of my time. She and I had been writing to each other quite frequently since Christmas, sort of the 'we held up the sky' club I guess. I'd found, though, that it was just nice to talk about the normal things we did, probably because anytime I was with Annabeth things were very much not-normal. The school she went to sounded pretty interesting, though she'd been struggling now that Thalia had gone off with Artemis. I didn't think, though, that she had any stories as uniquely mortal as our poop fight. Hopefully it would make her laugh.

When our hour was up, we gathered back together for the part of the day everyone was most excited for- riding. For the first time, KJ made an appearance. She was a severe looking woman in her mid-fifties, though perhaps she was only so angry because of what we'd done to the barn. Still, she kept her temper in check, and dutifully explained to us basic horse safety (don't run, don't scream, squeeze gently with your heals to make them go, pull back gently to make them stop). Then she asked for five volunteers to ride first.

Jocelyn, of course, was the first one to volunteer, which made everyone else nervous about doing so. Jacob raised his hand next, Jeremy and Juan sighing and following, so I decided I might as well take my turn. KJ brought out five horses, beautiful beings, and, after a moment of looking at our heights, handed me the thick leather reigns on a skittish bay mare she named 'Tessa'. How did I know Tessa was skittish you may ask? Well, because she told me.

_Oh no, My Lord, you mustn't ride me. I'm scared of everything! _

"Shh," I whispered to the mare, running my hand across her taut neck. "Trust me, I won't let anything go wrong."

_But what if we get eaten by a lion!_

"Have you ever seen a lion in New York?" I asked the horse, though the wind picked up my voice, and a few of my classmates gave me odd looks. I therefore spoke softer to Tessa, "As the son of Poseidon I promise I will protect you, alright? Just be good for me?"

Tessa continued to seem nervous, but she whinnied her assent. At that point, I did something foolish, and climbed right on. Mr. Harrington turned to me, panic in his eyes, "Percy, get down! You need a helmet!"

I rolled my eyes and hopped back off, wondering, not for the first time, why mortal adults got worried about the littlest thing, and yet gods were perfectly comfortable letting me fight their wars. Still, I knew well enough not to ask for trouble on a field trip, and accepted a helmet before climbing back on.

Jocelyn looked surprised that I knew what I was doing, but not annoyed. That was, at least, until she tried to get on herself. Now I'm sure Jocelyn is a perfectly good rider, but she mustn't have realized how different it was riding Western as it was riding English. The dainty English saddles she was used to didn't have a horn and so when she climbed on, she found a three-inch piece of leather at the front of the saddle stabbing her in the gut. Suddenly awkward and clumsy, she fumbled, her legs going all the way in front of her until they kicked the horse's neck. The horse panicked in response, and scooted forward. Jocelyn went flying off the back, and everyone laughed. For a moment. After that they realized that the horse hadn't stopped running when Jocelyn fell. It took off across the ring, galloping wildly in its panic. Tessa began to prance, whinnying rapidly, _Is there a lion? Is there a lion?_

"There's no lion," I told her, pulling hard on the reigns to get her to relax. Then I turned to the panicking horse and, without thinking, called out to it, "Stop!"

At my command, the horse came to a sliding stop and simply stared at me. Everyone else did as well. KJ, who was helping a red-faced Jocelyn to her feet, exclaimed, "In fifty years, I've never seen something like that. It's like he's listening to you."

I, of course, couldn't explain that he was. Instead, I cowed underneath the gazes of my classmates, trying to divert attention the best I could, "I just panicked and yelled. Guess I got lucky."

"Hmm," KJ answered, but she went and collected the horse, handing him back to Jocelyn. The girl looked nervous, but as the expression went, you just have to get back on the horse. Once she did, she payed more attention to where her body was, and managed to get on. The horse still wasn't too happy with her (as he made sure I knew), but there were no more dramatic turn of events as we took our turn, unless you count my flawless riding. Jocelyn, however, had a very rough ride, and at the end, I could hear a number of her friends sniggering, "Look who's the liar now."

I gritted my teeth, but I told myself it wasn't my problem, and patted Tessa. Thanking her, I promised there were no lions in New York and she should be good for the others. The second and third groups rode without problem, though a few people got nervous when they, foolishly, kicked and the horses ran off (as they should).

Then, as the fourth group got on, I watched cringing as one kid kept aggressively pulling on Tessa's reigns, even as KJ told him to stop. The horse wasn't even doing anything, just walking peacefully, but I could feel her agitation rising as the kid fooled around.

Then the kid had the nerve to kick with all his might, and yank back violently. Tessa screamed, _Master help. _And I screamed, "Stop it! You're hurting her!"

The kid came to a stop right in front of me, looming over the fence, "Shut up Percy. You don't know everything."

Now that, that was a new one. Usually kids reminded me that I knew nothing, that I was stupid, but somehow, somehow being called a know-it-all angered me far more. My eyes turned stormy, and I practically hissed, "Get off the horse, Jack."

"Or what? Are you going to use your secret horse whisper powers against me?"

So much for my earlier musings about my classmates maturing. They were still the same arrogant, cruel people I'd always known; I just hadn't attracted their ire yet. Well, Jack had attracted mine. Under my breath I muttered to Tessa, "Feel free to dump him in the sand."

Jack slammed his heels into Tessa, and immediately she took off. She flew across the arena, bucking violently. Jack went flying, landing with a dizzy thud in the middle of the ring. The moment he was on the ground, Tessa calmed down, trotting cheerfully over to me and asking, _Got any sugar cubes? _I did, because you never knew when you might need to bribe Blackjack, and snuck her one.

That was a bad decision. Jack noticed, and immediately he shouted from the ground, "Percy did it! He hit the horse so it would throw me off!"

Everyone turned to me, and considering Tessa was literally eating out of my hand, it was hard to deny that I could make the horse do anything I wanted. I froze, prepared for the inevitable words, 'You're expelled.' But, surprisingly, they didn't come. Mr. Harrington stalked over to me, KJ at his side, but before Mr. Harrington could say anything KJ exclaimed, "The kid didn't have to do anything. If someone kicked me like that, I'd throw them off as well. I told you to stop pulling on the reigns!"

Mr. Harrington looked suspiciously between me and Jack. No doubt, he knew my reputation, but he wasn't one of my teachers, so I'd never had the chance to make him hate me. Therefore he stared me down, but finally said, "Stay away from the horses, Percy."

Bitter and angry, I stepped back from the fence as the final group rode. Suddenly, everyone was talking about me, and not about my skills with horses. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jocelyn's friends spinning a tale of how I'd made her fall off too. My heart sank. All year I'd managed to avoid negative attention, but now, in a few short minutes, I'd thrown it away. Ultimately, Jack's accusations weren't wrong. I hadn't hit the horse, but I had told Tessa to throw him off. I didn't feel guilty about it though. It wasn't like Jack was hurt, but Tessa was. When I saw KJ leading her from the ring, the corner of her mouth bloody from Jack's pulling, I knew I didn't regret it one bit. I didn't like bullies; I didn't care what species they were bullying. Besides, horses were under my father's protection, and that meant they were under mine.

Still, I did regret that, when we went back to our cabins for free time until dinner, Jacob didn't invite me to join him for cards again. He looked almost sorry about it, but only almost. Like I said, it was clear my classmates hadn't matured that much.

I tried not to be bitter. After all, I didn't regret my actions, and since I didn't care what any of them thought of me anyways… still I was in a crummy mood all night. It was made worse when our campfire was cancelled because some big storm was blowing in. I wondered momentarily if it was a hurricane caused by my own bad mood, but dismissed that as insane. I was fairly certain I couldn't accidentally cause hurricanes… fairly certain. No, most likely it was just a normal storm, though when lightning cracked across the sky, I wondered if maybe it was Zeus who'd decided to play a little game of 'let's annoy Percy until he explodes'.

It was impossible to sleep as the storm thrashed above us. Every few seconds the world would alight as twisting thunderbolts crashed to the ground. I grimaced each time. When the four of us had to run across a patch of woods to brush our teeth, my luck was complete. A giant bolt of lightening crashed down, cracking the tree inches from my face. I screamed, and then, stupidly, shouted, "Seriously Zeus! I thought we were over this 'killing me' thing!"

The other boys in my cabin heard, and stared at me like I was insane. When I got to the safety of the bathroom, Jasper asked, "What the heck is wrong with you, man?"

"Nothing," I growled, soaking wet and in far too foul a mood to be made fun of. I don't think anyone has ever brushed their teeth so aggressively as I did that night. It was made worse because all the horses were terrified, and their screeching was giving me a headache.

_Save us!_

_ Sky fire!_

_ Save us!_

_Lion!_

_ Save us!_

_ Fire!_

I froze, toothpaste dribbling out of the corner of my mouth. I spit, and wiped my face on my sleeve. The horses continued to scream, more and more of them shouting 'Fire', 'fire'. My heart sank. Without thinking, or offering any explanation, I whispered loud enough for the others to hear, "The barn's on fire."

I dashed from the bathroom. Thunder and lightening continued to crackle around me. I felt twelve years old again, terrified as I realized the master bolt had been in my backpack the whole time. Yet I also felt confident, sure, steady. As the horses screamed in my head, I swore, "I'm coming."

The fire had not reached the outer walls of the barn, but when I got inside, I could see where it had come through a hole in the roof and hit the hay, the worst possible place it could hit. Panicked, I did the impulsive thing, and began running around the barn, opening the stall doors and letting the horses dash to freedom. The fire continued to spread, and smoke from the burning hay filled the air. I coughed heavily, but continued until every horse was free.

_Thank you, son of the Sea God! Kill the lion! _Tessa yelled as she fled, and I wondered if everything was quite alright in her head. Then I coughed heavily, and dropped to the ground. The smoke, I knew, was killing me, and I was at the total wrong end of the barn. I struggled to my feet, but only managed a few steps before dizziness overwhelmed me, and I fell to the ground once more.

A fleeting thought crossed my head, _So this is how I die, not at the hands of a monster, but from my own recklessness. Fatal flaw indeed. _

_Son of the Sea God! Where is the Son of the Sea God? _

Suddenly, as I coughed further, I realized that I wasn't stupid because I tried to save the horses; I was stupid because I hadn't simply put out the fire. Here I was, the son of Poseidon, and it hadn't even crossed my mind to just use water to put the fire out.

I struggled to stand, feeling around me for the surging water of pipes. I could sense it, just out of reach, but my vision was dancing. I could hardly see through the smoke and as for breathing…

Suddenly, I heard the clopping of hooves. I thought for a second that Hades really needed to shave because he was starting to look all hairy. Then I realized it wasn't Hades, or Thanatos, or any death god. It was a horse, and she grabbed the collar of my shirt and started pulling, _I will save the Son of the Sea God from the lion!_

"Tessa, leave," I croaked out, but the smoke was too heavy for my words to be more than a garble. Frankly, though, I doubted it would have made much of a difference. Tessa, the cowardly horse terrified of lions in the shadows, had decided she was going to save me, and nothing I said would convince her otherwise. She dragged my along the ground, and I hissed in pain as burning embers landed upon my skin, but I held on, letting her pull me even as my vision seemed to fade.

But as always, my luck didn't hold out. The air was starting to clear, and I could see our path to safety, but then a beam from the hayloft caught fire, and the structure tumbled down, blocking our path. Tessa whinnied in panic, pulling me the other way. Dismay filled me. I was dead. We both were. There was no way out and I could hardly stay conscious, never mind save us. Tessa was right to be scared of everything; bravery only got you killed.

"I'm sorry," I told her, reaching up to pat her. "I can't save us without water."

Tessa let go, and I fell to the floor. I could hardly see anymore; I certainly couldn't breath. I didn't know what was happening around me, but I knew I was dying. I only wished Tessa didn't have to die with me.

Suddenly, a crash, and I felt the spray of cool water. My vision cleared, and I could make out Tessa properly. She stood, surrounded by flames, her back legs next to a burst pipe. She must have heard my desperate plea and kicked it until it broke. "Good horse," I croaked. My strength returned. It wasn't nearly enough water to put out the fire, but for a moment, I could stand. I could breath. I could think. I didn't hesitate this time, instead feeling the pull of the pipes around me, the steady drum of the water buckets in every stall. It obeyed my will, washing over the barn until every last ember had gone out.

At that point, I promptly fainted. I was later informed that when they made their way through the collapsed doorway, they thought we were both dead, as Tessa lay beside me, her head upon my chest. When they moved in with the gurney though, she jumped to her feet, snorting and pawing at the ground, certain the gurney was a lion come to eat me. Somehow they convinced her it wasn't, and I got transported to a hospital.

When I awoke, my mom wasn't next to me. Instead she was in the hallway yelling, "Expelled! But he didn't do anything! He saved those horses! No! No you can't expel him because I'm withdrawing him this minute! What sort of people…"

I drifted back off to sleep, more amused by my mom's fury than surprised I'd been expelled. Somehow, I just knew it was coming. After all, the cannon incident in fifth grade had proved there didn't need to be monsters involved for things to go wrong on a field trip. Mostly I was just wondering if Chiron would let me bring Tessa to camp, though perhaps it was best if I didn't. Knowing my life, a lion would show up and she's never trust me again.


End file.
